Battle of Carthage (1861)

The Battle of Carthage was an American Civil War battle which was fought on 5 July 1861 in the Western Theater.

Following the Battle of Boonville, Franz Sigel's Union troops quickly took the town of Springfield, Missouri and prepared to catch up with the retreating Missouri State Guard forces at Carthage. Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and Sterling Price's State Guard forces met up at Lamar, and Sigel encamped at Carthage. Jackson made plans to attack the smaller but better-armed Union force, and his artillery fire opened the battle. Jackson tricked Sigel by sending unarmed Guardsmen around the left Union flank, and the cautious Sigel ordered his men to withdraw rather than be surrounded. Sigel conducted a successful rearguard action before retreating back to Carthage and then to Sarcoxie that night. The battle marked the only time that a US state governor led troops in the field, and the Confederate cause in Missouri was reinvigorated.